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The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more. Search below to view digital records and find material that you can access at our library and at the Shapell Center.

Leon and Molly N. Holocaust testimony (HVT-145)

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-145

Videotape testimony of Leon N., who was born in Mława, Poland in 1910 and his wife, Molly N., who was born in Mława in 1923. Mr. N. tells of prewar life; German occupation; ghettoization in 1941; starvation; food smuggling; mass killings and public hangings; deportation to Auschwitz in 1942 with his first wife and four children; wanting to kill himself "on the wires" knowing his family had been murdered; work as a shoemaker for over three years one-quarter mile from the gas chambers; evacuation in 1945 to several camps ending at Bergen-Belsen; liberation by British troops; meeting General Patton; return to Mława; finding thirty-three of 11,000 Jews had returned; establishing his business; and emigration to the United States. Mrs. N. recalls transport from Mława with two sisters to Auschwitz; their transfer to Budy; forced labor constructing roads; one of her sister's death; a death march three years later to Ravensbrück; another death march; liberation by American troops; returning to Mława with her sister; marriage there to Mr. N.; fleeing Poland after anti-Semitic incidents; and emigration to the United States in 1949. They discuss their pride in their son and grandchildren; feeling their experiences were impossible to survive; and their sense of loss of European Jewry - an entire nation.

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.